A Queens dad who was burned to death trying to save his family from a raging arson fire that killed his three children received threatening phone calls an hour before the blaze broke out, police said yesterday.

Hardeo Etwaroo, 37, was horribly burned over his entire body as he frantically tried to get into the second-floor bedroom where his children were trapped after the fire started shortly before 2:30 a.m.

But the blaze was too hot for Etwaroo or firefighters to reach them.

Firefighters later found the three children on the floor of their bedroom in the smoldering house on 108th Street, near Jamaica Avenue, in Richmond Hill.

The oldest child, Phelicia, 14, was found hugging her 4-year-old brother, Anthony, to her chest, a firefighter told The Post.

Alex, 8, was lying nearby, the firefighter said.

Etwaroo was taken to Jamaica Hospital and then the Cornell Burn Unit in Manhattan, where he died several hours later.

The children’s mother, Brindra, hurt her ankle jumping to safety from a second-floor window and was listed in critical condition at Jamaica Hospital. She was not burned.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the arsonist went in the front door, which may have been unlocked, poured a large amount of gasoline on the stairs to the second floor, lit it, and fled.

The family was sleeping upstairs and the fire spread quickly through the wood-frame house, blocking their escape.

Mrs. Etwaroo’s brother, Hemchand Narain, 32, who was visiting from Guyana, jumped out a second-floor window.

Neighbors said Mrs. Etwaroo jumped nest and then stood out front watching the blaze in horror and screaming: “Get my kids, my children!”

The valiant father remained inside trying to save them, then ran down the blazing staircase and out the front door, officials said.

Despite severe burns, he ran to the back of the house, got a neighbor’s ladder, and climbed up to a narrow roof above the front door, outside his children’s bedroom window.

“There was a huge explosion and the window blew out, right into the father’s face,” said neighbor Sarah LaRosa.

“He was on the roof. He had glass all over his face, his eyes and his nose.”

She said firefighters brought Etwaroo down and put him in an ambulance.

It took firefighters nearly an hour to get the flames under control.

“I saw a fireman carrying out a baby in his arms. He was severely burned,” said neighbor Rosalba Torres.

“I knew he was dead because his legs were dangling. I’ve never seen anything like this. It was like fire from hell.”

Police said Etwaroo came home late Sunday night after spending the night out with friends – and some time later got at least two menacing phone calls.

It wasn’t immediately known what the caller said.

Police were seeking to question several people linked to the tragic family last night.

Cops said Narain had been arrested last week for allegedly torching a car his girlfriend was given by another man.

Police said they wanted to speak to the girlfriend and the other man.

Investigators also found Phelicia’s diary – where she wrote about having a quarrel with her boyfriend last week.

Cops said they wanted to question the man, who is in his 20s.

In a further development, police said another house guest, identified only as Tony, had made a 911 call about the fire – and they wanted to question him as well. He was not hurt.

Etwaroo, who immigrated from Guyana in 1981, worked for 14 years as a customer-relations representative at a Chase Manhattan Bank in Brooklyn.

He also owned a Caribbean restaurant in Queens.

“He really lived for his children,” said his childhood friend, Michael Dayaran, 41.

“He loved to spend time with them. He wanted to give his children everything. He wanted to give them the opportunities he didn’t have back home.”